The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-07-07
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

A scientist declares that 1t cannot yet
be determined whether the sun grows
hotter as its spots grow fewer.
The water in an old English well, 207
feet deep, was carefully observed last
year, and shown to vary only 10 de-
grees in temperature during the year.
A curious local anesthetic of the Chi
nese is in the form of hard, wax-like tab
lets. II seems to owe it's benumbing
property to secretion from the skin Of
frogs.
BY careful experiments, M. Blech has
determined that it takes 1-72 of a second
longer to hear a sound than to see sight,
and LEI of a second longer to feel a
touch than to see a sight. .-.
A Russian physicist finds that, con,
trary to general belief, the strength and
property of elongation are increased by
low temperature in iron and steel, the
force of cohesion being intensified by
contraction.
A substance resembling ivory OF
creamy whitencss and great hardness is
made from good potatoes washed in di-
luted sulphuric acid, then boiled in the
same solution until they become solid
and dense They are then washed free
from the acid and slowly dried. This
ivory can be dyed and turned and made
useful in many ways.
A humane German chemist has hit
upon an idea which, if adopted, would
be worth dozen new explosives. He
makes a bullet so brittle that it breaks
when it strikes, and, a powerful anes
thetic being enclosed, that renders in
stantly and completely insensibe any
persons that may be wounded by it. The
inscnscnsibility lasts at least twelve
hours, during which time the bodies may
be comfortably removed to hospital,
with great reduction of suffering on
the battlefield. Such, at least, is what
is claimed.
The largest secondary battery yet con
structcd is probably that in the base
ment of the city hall of Paris. 1t includes
165 gigantic elements, ten inches in di-
amcter and thirty-one inches in height,
and it yields power of 100 horses. 1t
weighs eleven tons, and contains 975
gallons of liquid. Its purpose is to reg
ulate the 1900 Edison lamps that light
the Hall of Fctes and the adjacent salons,
| the contract requiring that the battery
shall keep up the light from twenty to
thirty minutes in case of accidental stop
page of the machines. The current, pro-
ducing machines for this part of the il
Elimination alone are three large Gramme
dynamos and four steam engines of a to-
tai power of 1870 horses.
During the Middle Ages, leprosy, even
now the dread of the East, was the
scourge of all EuropcSbut is now sell
dom found there except on the west coast
of Norway, where it is still frightfully
common Little is known of the origin
and nature of the disease, notwithstand-
ing the fact that it has continued to af-
fiict great mass of mankind from the
earliest times. The Norwegian Govern
ment one of the most active in advanc-
ing the cause of science, is seeking to
promote better knowledge of what was
once regarded as a special visitation
from God, and to aid in so doing has dis
patched DR.. G. A. Hansen to-not China,
but America This investigator has had
much experience with lepers, and his
purpose is to inquire into the heredity of
leprosy among the scandinavian settlers
in the United States. While such a
study promises to be of great value, an
announcement of more direct practical
Importance comes from Japan, where Dr.
Soto claims to be actually curing the dis
ease, reporting five patients as nearly
cured, nine-een as improving, and sew.
enteen as relieved.